Villanueva raises issue of contractualization in government

(FILE) Sen. Joel Villanueva. (Voltaire F. Domingo / Senate PRIB)

MANILA, Philippines – Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva on Saturday urged the government to address the longstanding issues of contractualization and unfilled government positions.

According to Villanueva, there are at present 642,077 Job Order (JO) or Contract of Service (COS) workers in the government.

“We have been raising the issue of unfilled positions in government during budget hearings since we became a senator in 2016, and the number of JOs and COS workers in government remains a problem. It’s about time that we address the issue of contractualization in government,” Villanueva said.

Villanueva said that despite the high number of CO and COS employees, there are still 170,688 vacant positions in government.

Citing data from the Civil Service Commission (CSC), Villanueva said the following government agencies have the most number of JO and COS employees:

• Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) –  22,457

• Department of Education (DepEd) – 12,465

• Department of Health (DOH) –  8,188

• Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) – 7,340

• Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) –  5,487

Villanueva added that these agencies also have thousands of unfilled positions. DepEd has 47,034 vacancies and the DOH has 21,038. This is followed by the DPWH at 3,180, the DENR at 2,430 and the DSWD at 381.

According to Villanueva, the JO and COS employees are not qualified to apply for permanent government positions despite the high number of vacancies.

Meanwhile, Villanueva lauded the CSC for giving JOs and COS a “preferential rating” in the next civil service examination, which allows their years in government service to be considered when they take the test.

“This is a welcome development on the part of the CSC to secure jobs for JO and COS workers in the government. Let’s end endo in government once and for all,” Villanueva said.

In July, Villanueva filed the Senate Bill No. 568 or the Skills Certificate Equivalency Program Act which would institutionalize the Skills Certificate Equivalency Program, a partnership between the Technical Education And Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and the CSC.

The senator and former  TESDA head also filed Senate Bill No. 131 or the Civil Service Security of Tenure Act in the same month, which would provide tenure and automatic civil service eligibility for contractual employees who have served five years in government.

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/MUF